Alcohol abuse is the third leading lifestyle-related cause of death for individuals in the United States, causing 88,000 deaths each year in the United States from 2006-2010. To limit the physical and mental harm caused by alcohol abuse, a variety of devices are used to provide varying levels of intoxication detection.
For example, the SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring device is an ankle-worn, commercial detection device. It is typically used for high-risk, Driving Under the Influence (DUI) alcohol offenders who have been ordered by a court not to consume alcohol. The SCRAM device samples the wearer's perspiration once every 30 minutes in order to measure his BAC levels. In another example, the Kisai Intoxicated LCD Watch, as produced by TokyoFlash, Japan, is a watch that includes a built-in breathalyzer. By breathing into its breathalyzer, the watch detects and displays graphs of the user's blood alcohol content (BAC) level.
Additionally, machine learning approaches to detect BAC from data gathered from conventional smartwatches have been used. As smartwatches have been developed, attempts have been made to utilize them to detect alcohol consumption levels. For example, certain conventional approaches have estimated a user's intoxication level using heart rate and temperature detected by a smartwatch worn by the user.
Further, certain smartphone applications, such as Intoxicheck (http://intoxicheck.appstor.io) can detect alcohol impairment in users. In use, a user takes a series of reaction, judgment, and memory challenges before and after drinking, which are compared to estimate their intoxication level. Other smartphone applications detect intoxication detection from gait. For example, certain conventional smartphone applications relate to a passive phone-based system that use the smartphone's accelerometer data to detect whether users had consumed alcohol or not.